In a general color photographic light-sensitive material, when the said light-sensitive material is exposed to light image-wise and then color-developed, the oxidized p-phenylenediamine derivative reacts with couplers to form an image. In this system, color reproduction by the subtractive color technique is used, and, to reproduce blue, green, and red colors, couplers that form dye images of yellow, magenta, and cyan in color, respectively complementary to blue, green, and red, are used.
Conventional color development is achieved by immersing a light-exposed color photographic light-sensitive material in an aqueous alkali solution having a p-phenylenediamine derivative dissolved therein (a color developer). However, there is a problem that the p-phenylenediamine derivative in an aqueous alkali solution is unstable and is apt to deteriorate over time, and in order to retain stable development performance, the color developer must be replenished frequently. Further, the disposal of used color developers containing a p-phenylenediamine derivative is burdensome, and together with the above frequent replenishment, the treatment of used color developers discharged in large quantities gives rise to a serious problem. Thus, there is a strong demand for the attainment of low replenishment and reduced discharge of color developers.
One effective measure proposed for attaining low replenishment and reduced discharge of color developers is a method wherein an aromatic primary amine developing agent or its precursor is built in a hydrophilic colloid layer of a light-sensitive material, and examples of the aromatic primary amine developing agents or their precursors that can be built in include compounds described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,507,114, 3,764,328, and 4,060,418, and JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) Nos. 6235/1981 and 192031/1983. However, since these aromatic primary amines and their precursors are unstable, there is the defect that, when the unprocessed light-sensitive material is stored for a long period of time or is color-developed, stain occurs. Another effective measure proposed is a method wherein a sulfonylhydrazine-type compound, as described, for example, in European Patent Nos. 0,545,491A1 and 0,565,165A1, is built in a hydrophilic colloid layer of a light-sensitive material. When a conventional phenol coupler is used, however, there is a problem that the color formability is low, and therefore the development of a technique to improve the color-forming property is desired. On the other hand, when a conventional naphthol coupler is used, although a good color-forming property is exhibited, there is a problem that the absorption wavelength of the resulting cyan dye is too short and satisfactory color reproduction cannot be obtained. To solve this problem, the development of a technique to shift the absorption wavelength of the formed cyan dyes to a longer wavelength region is desired.